A stray dog looks through a hole in a fence in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. / Mikhail Mordasov, AFP/Getty Images

by By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports

by By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY Sports

Following criticism from animal welfare groups, Sochi officials cancelled its plans to kill more than 2,000 stray cats and dogs before the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Officials said the plan was changed because it didn't receive any public bids to carry out the extermination. Instead the city will seek an alternate route of "keeping, treating and sterilizing animals," according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Local officials had said that killing the strays was necessary to ensure the safety of visitors and improve the city's image. But those authorities changed course, a day after the CEO of Humane Society International criticized the city's method of controlling the stray population.

"It's an attempt to beautify the problem and in effect it gives a rather graphic and horrific (picture of the city)," Andrew Rowan, who is also The Humane Society of the United States' chief scientific officer, told USA TODAY Sports Wednesday.

Sochi authorities also said in a statement that an animal shelter would be built in the city and be maintained by a charity organization.

"Humane Society International is very pleased at the decision by the Russian authorities to abandon the proposed cull of stray dogs and cats in Sochi," Rowan said Thursday. "This is the right approach to deal with stray companion animals, and HSI would be pleased to assist the Sochi authorities as they develop their plans."